FIGS. 1A and 1B depict ABS and side views of a portion of a conventional heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) transducer 10. For clarity, FIGS. 1A and 1B are not to scale. The conventional HAMR transducer 10 is used in writing a recording media (not shown in FIGS. 1A-1B) and receives light, or energy, from a conventional laser (not shown in FIGS. 1A-1B). The conventional HAMR transducer 10 includes a conventional waveguide 12 having cladding 14 and 16 and core 18, a conventional near-field transducer (NFT) 20, and a conventional pole 30. The conventional pole 30 includes a pole tip 32 having a surface at the air-bearing surface (ABS). Light from a laser (not shown) is incident on and coupled into the waveguide 12. Light is guided by the conventional waveguide 12 to the NFT 20 near the ABS. The NFT 20 focuses the light to magnetic recording media (not shown), such as a disk. This region is thus heated. The write pole 30 is energized and field from the pole tip 32 is used to write to the heated portion of the recording media.
Although the conventional HAMR transducer 10 functions, there are drawbacks. In particular, integration of the magnetic portions of the transducer 10 with the optical portions of the HAMR transducer 10 may be challenging. For example, the field from the conventional pole tip 32 at the media may not be in the direction desired. In some cases, the field, which is desired to be close to perpendicular to the ABS, may be almost parallel to the ABS at the recording media. As a result, the performance of the conventional HAMR transducer 10 may be adversely affected.